Ethics and Profit in Modern Capitalist Firms: A Conceptual Analysis of Diverse Conceptions of ‘the Good’

Abstract

Through a critical synthesis of literature from economics, business ethics, and moral philosophy, the paper develops a virtue-ethics-based framework that explains how responsible behaviour can emerge through organisational actors, decisions, and practices. It argues that while profit enables firms to pursue broader social purposes, profit itself is often abstracted from ethical ends such as wellbeing, sustainability and good governance, concerns that are increasingly reflected in environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks. The paper distinguishes between value-as-quantity, represented by economic outcomes such as profit, and value-as-quality, associated with ethical worth and moral responsibility. It argues that existing approaches to business ethics, including consequentialist interpretations, frequently evaluate ethical conduct according to the outcomes it produces, thereby risking the treatment of ethics as a means to commercial objectives. In contrast, the paper proposes a virtue ethics framework for business practice that distinguishes ethical agency from ethical outcomes and recognises moral character as an intrinsic dimension of responsible organisational behaviour. This provides a philosophically grounded approach to understanding how firms can integrate ethical considerations beyond the pursuit of financial performance.